Return to Your Rest

 

“Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.”

—Psalm 116:7 NKJV

What does the Bible say about the Christian’s customary position? Hebrews 4:9 says:

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.

I believe that Scripture teaches that Christians should normally live in a “resting” position. This place of rest shows reliance on God, joy and divine peace, and trust in God’s care.

I like the King James Version of Psalm 116:7 because it uses the word “return.” God’s peace and rest remain our normal relation and position.

In Psalm 116, the Psalmist had been overcome by trouble and sorrow. (His words). He apparently had come close to death and God had spared him. In response, he speaks to himself and says, “Return to your rest.”

What kinds of things can you recall that have taken you out of your resting position? Maybe it was a deadly disease, a close call, a period of great stress, or the multitude of times when you just don’t know how a problem will turn out. Sometimes these “tempests in teapots” can cause great strife in our lives.

When we turn to God in these times, more often than not, He hears our prayers and answers us, and “tends and spares us” as the hymn “Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven” teaches us:

Father-like, he tends and spares us;
   well our feeble frame he knows;
In his hands he gently bears us,
   rescues us from all our foes.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Widely as his mercy goes. ¹

So, as you experience the turmoil and terrors of daily life and after praying see God do some wonderful things, remember to praise Him. Meditate on the many times He has answered prayer. Journal about those times in your life, so you can return and remind yourself of them in the future.

Then, rejoice in His goodness. He will allow your soul to return to its natural position of rest in Him.

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1 Henry F. Lyte, Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven. Public Domain.

—Posted: Monday, July 25, 2016